Bill Text: NY A10336 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Clarifies what constitutes abandonment of a patient by a physician for purposes of a medical misconduct allegation, requires a physician practicing as a patient's primary care physician who opts to no longer treat the patient to provide notice to such patient, and provides for specific penalties for a violation of such provisions.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-04-29 - referred to higher education [A10336 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A10336-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          10336

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                     April 29, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. PERRY -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Higher Education

        AN ACT to amend the education law and the public health law, in relation
          to clarifying what constitutes abandonment of a patient by a physician
          for purposes of a  medical  misconduct  allegation,  and  requiring  a
          physician practicing as a patient's primary care physician who opts to
          no longer treat the patient to provide notice to such patient

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Subdivision 30 of section 6530 of  the  education  law,  as
     2  added  by chapter 606 of the laws of 1991, is amended and a new subdivi-
     3  sion 51 is added to read as follows:
     4    30. Abandoning or neglecting a patient  under  [and]  the  physician's
     5  care  including,  but  not  limited  to,  patients  in need of immediate
     6  professional  care,  without  making  reasonable  arrangements  for  the
     7  continuation  of such care, or abandoning a professional employment by a
     8  group practice, hospital, clinic or other health care facility,  without
     9  reasonable  notice  and  under  circumstances which seriously impair the
    10  delivery of professional care to patients or clients;
    11    51. Failing to comply with  the  provisions  of  subdivision  nine  of
    12  section sixty-five hundred twenty-seven of this title.
    13    §  2.  Section  6527  of  the education law is amended by adding a new
    14  subdivision 9 to read as follows:
    15    9. (a) If a licensed  physician  having  established  a  primary  care
    16  relationship  with  a  patient chooses to no longer treat the patient in
    17  the capacity as the patient's primary  care  physician,  such  physician
    18  shall  provide  notice to the patient not less than ninety days prior to
    19  the cessation of the provision of services. Such  notice  shall  include
    20  information  as to how the patient can obtain his or her medical records
    21  or how the records can be transferred to another physician.  The  physi-
    22  cian  may include in the notice information identifying other physicians
    23  or medical groups which he or she recommends the patient consider as his
    24  or her next primary care physician. The notice  shall  be  considered  a
    25  formal  action  and  shall  be provided to the individual in the form of

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD15713-07-0
        A. 10336                            2

     1  mail, email or phone; provided that a written record noting when and how
     2  the patient was contacted shall be maintained for a period of  not  less
     3  than  three years, and shall be noted in such patient's medical records.
     4  If  the patient was contacted by phone, the record shall reflect whether
     5  the physician was successful in speaking with the patient.
     6    (b) For the purposes of this subdivision:
     7    (i) the term "primary care physician"  shall  mean  a  physician  duly
     8  licensed  to  practice  medicine  and  who consents to being a patient's
     9  first contact when such patient  has  a  health  concern,  who  provides
    10  continuing care to such patient for various medical conditions, and who,
    11  having  established  a relationship with the patient in which the physi-
    12  cian treats  such  patient  during  regularly  scheduled  doctor-patient
    13  visits,  provides  services,  including,  but  not limited to, an annual
    14  physical.
    15    (ii) a "primary care relationship" between a patient and  a  physician
    16  shall  be deemed to exist where (1) a verbal or written agreement exists
    17  between a patient and a physician, under which such physician has agreed
    18  to serve as such patient's primary care physician; or (2) the  physician
    19  seeing  the  patient has developed a relationship wherein such physician
    20  provides the patient medical care that includes, but is not limited  to,
    21  diagnostic services, prescribing medication, and treating illness during
    22  non-hospital visits for medical services.
    23    §  3. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 230-a-1
    24  to read as follows:
    25    § 230-a-1. Specific penalties for  professional  misconduct.  Notwith-
    26  standing  the  provisions of section two hundred thirty-a of this title,
    27  or any other provision of law to  the  contrary,  the  state  board  for
    28  professional  medical conduct shall impose on a present or former licen-
    29  see found guilty of a violation of subdivision thirty  or  fifty-one  of
    30  section  sixty-five  hundred  thirty  of the education law the following
    31  penalties:
    32    1. For a first violation, a ninety-day suspension of  the  license  of
    33  such licensee, as applicable, and a fine of ten thousand dollars.
    34    2.  For  each subsequent violation, the penalty shall be determined by
    35  the state board for professional medical misconduct, but  shall  not  be
    36  less  than  a  ninety-day suspension of the license of such licensee, as
    37  applicable, and a fine of not less than ten thousand dollars.
    38    § 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
    39  it shall have become a law.